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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to have just thrown water over my neighbour's cat?

114 replies

StrawHat · 30/07/2011 18:26

I usually miss but got him this time.
I have a cat and wouldn't mind someone squirting him out of their garden but I just used a saucepan full and swore at him too.
Cat poo is so yukky. I have put up a fence to stop mine getting into my neighbour's garden after they complained and totally see where they're coming from as they grow a lot of food.
I'm on both sides of this arguement!

OP posts:
SnapesPlaything · 30/07/2011 20:29

Dogsbestfriend - what would be your preferred option?

OP I think yanbu, if my neighbors dumped water over DCat I would laugh and tell her it served her right for being a madam. (She occasionly sneaks in their wondows and eats their leftovers)

SnapesPlaything · 30/07/2011 20:31

windows

NevermindtheNargles · 30/07/2011 20:33

If I caught a neighbourhood kid shitting in my garden I'd throw a bucket of water over it. Would expect anyone else to do the same with mine (cats and kid). If one of my neighbours bought an air rifle, so would I. Ditto boiling water. Evil fuckers.

DogsBestFriend · 30/07/2011 20:34

I'd do nothing. Why would I waste time and energy chasing an animal which has legal right to be there (or at least there is no legislation to prevent him from being there)? Wouldn't do it any more than I'd chase foxes or rabbits out.

And I certainly wouldn't throw water over an animal unless for very good reason - for example, to break up a fight.

SnapesPlaything · 30/07/2011 20:36

Not sure where legalities come in since by your logic it is equally as legal for me to chase off cats with water since there is no laws preventing it.

MadamDeathstare · 30/07/2011 20:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tiredmumno1 · 30/07/2011 20:41

What about the damage being done to our vehicle then, surely there should be something that could be done with the owners. They should be paying for the damage

BistoBear · 30/07/2011 20:46

I proper laughed out loud at ginmakesitallok's comment "Well if a child was sneaking into my garden to have a shit in my flowerbeds I would do the same as the OP..." :) :)

Mitmoo · 30/07/2011 20:48

I keep posting this but go to a garden centre and ask for pee off plants, cats hate them and will steer clear of your gardens. There is a posh name for them but they all know it by pee off.

DogsBestFriend · 30/07/2011 20:48

Snapes, no so. Arguably you could be considered to have breached the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (can't see it sticking, admittedly, but arguably scaring a cat with water and distressing him is an abuse).

Damage to your vehicle is something to take up with the owners, TM (or just move your car?) although cats are unable to be guilty of any trespass, unlike the dog, for whom the owner is responsible in law.

DogsBestFriend · 30/07/2011 20:49

Coleus Canina, Mitmoo. :)

Mitmoo · 30/07/2011 20:52

You are posh dogsbestfriend I can only remember the common name. Grin

DogsBestFriend · 30/07/2011 20:54

Me? Nah!

Lots of horticulturalists in the family though, it rubs off. :)

alowVera · 30/07/2011 21:05

If the cats are fighting, and therefore doing something that seems to come naturally to territorial animals, warrants having water chucked over them, as dogsbestfriend suggests, I wonder then how the little darlings shitting is any different?

VirtualWitch · 30/07/2011 21:05

I love cats but don't have any myself. However I always make a big fuss of the neighbour's cats wherever I have lived, and often let them in my house (as long as their owners don't mind). I have never ever had one bit of cat poo in my garden. I read last week that this would be because they regard it as their territory to defend and therefore don't have to mark it as a boundary or use it as pooing ground.

I bet it would be a lot more effective than throwing water over a cat (and make you feel better too).

alowVera · 30/07/2011 21:08

Is shitting in a veg patch for example, and thus giving people who grow their own vegetables, and woo betide the poor kid that eats something uncooked, or just happens to help with the gardening, and then absently touches their eyes or mouth ands gets toxaplasmosis. That DOESN'T warrant a sodding cup of water. Goodness dogsbestfriend your priorities are messed up.

TalkinPeace2 · 30/07/2011 21:10

As the owner of a late and much lamented thug cat.
Plant sprayers set to jet are very useful things
and yes, after he tore the ear off the neighbours Rottweiler, they we on orders to pour a bucket of water over him.
I got next doors cat with a glass of water in the kitchen this morning.
Water yes.

Air guns.
Before shooting at the cat with an air gun, please check it out on your own child's leg first.
If you are not willing to shoot at your own family, you should not shoot any other living being.

DogsBestFriend · 30/07/2011 21:15

alow, I wasn't speaking specifically of cats fighting wrt throwing water to fbreak a fight up - thinking more along the lines of dogs etc, or in cases where , say, a dog has caught a rabiit, those cases whereby serious harm could occur to one or other creature.

VirtualWitch · 30/07/2011 21:15

Can I also just say that there is a lot of animal cruelty that goes on, animals tortured to death, etc and I do think that this sort of attitude contributes in part to lowering people's beliefs of what is cruel and what isn't. I'm not a particularly soft person (in business I can be very hard indeed) but I couldn't live with myself for throwing water over a cat, even though it doesn't really hurt them.

I also personally don't want to live in a little sanitised concrete world with no place other than for humans and cars, and therefore I respect my neighbours's right to keep pets. If I didn't, I would live in an isolated detached house.

I don't consider people who are brought up to hate animals particularly well brought up.

TalkinPeace2 · 30/07/2011 21:18

Virtual
my lovely old cat regarded getting soaked as an occupational hazard of stirring it up - his version of a hangover.
If any bastard had ever shot him with an airgun ..........

And yes - i soaked him too : stealing from the BBQ was a step too far!

alowVera · 30/07/2011 21:24

I wouldn't say I hate animals. I do however hate animal crap in my garden.

Tiredmumno1 · 30/07/2011 21:25

Cant move the car its on our drive, but we will take it up with owners.

The rspca say if a cat is pictured on a car, they will take them away.

Maybe this is our option as i dont think the neighbours would care, because neighbours on the other side spoke to them before and they got a mouthful, i dont think they even feed them, the cats were out there recently ripping a bird to shreds - yuk, not nice to see

VirtualWitch · 30/07/2011 21:29

TalkingPeace2 don't know about cats but I've been shot at by an airgun (when out running) - only twats have them, unless they are in the countryside and use them for pest control.

Tiredmumno1 "The rspca say if a cat is pictured on a car, they will take them away"

Err...not a fan of the RSPCA actually (there are better, less well funded welfare organisations) but even for them, this would be going a bit far visions of cat owners all over the country besieging the RSPCA following raids to remove bonnet surfing cats

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 30/07/2011 21:33

YANBU. I chuck water at stalking moggies. I have yet to wet one, though, because their reactions are much faster than mine. Then they sit on the shed roof and dismissively wash their paws. I suspect this is also the feline equivalent of giving me the finger.

Tiredmumno1 · 30/07/2011 21:35

Virtual, that would be the last option obviously, however we cant keep allowing them to damage our vehicle, its us that has to pay for it, and i really dont think the neighbours would give a damn, and surely we would be doing the cats a favour, at least they might get fed thenVirtual, that would be the last option obviously, however we cant keep allowing them to damage our vehicle, its us that has to pay for it, and i really dont think the neighbours would give a damn, and surely we would be doing the cats a favour, at least they might get fed then